Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal

The New York Times ^ | January 15, 2009 | Eric Lichtblau

[fremont_steve]

WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.

[Bosh Flimshaw]

Now you are changing your rationale.

If you feel comfortable giving the Obama administration this kind of power, that’s your business.

[savedbygrace]

Now you are changing your rationale.

Nope, not in the slightest. If you think you can support that wild claim from the record, please provide quotes, not taken out of context, to support it.

[gondramB]

>>
All I am saying is no matter what Congress passes as FISA laws, or the FISA court rules, the RATs evesdrop no matter. BUT THE RATS lefty liberals are the ones jumping on Bush for trying to keep us safe from terrorist attacks. Huh?<<

Sorry I misunderstood. Yes, you are right I can already feel their double standards on the way. Heck they picked the queen of double standards for speaker and now they have the White House too.

[gondramB]

>>Yet, your opinion was that we shouldn’t be allowed to wiretap UNLESS we have an extraordinary time sensitive situation, which means, the situation cannot wait for a warrant.

But if we’re not allowed to wiretap without a warrant, then we would not know about those time sensitive plans until AFTER the terrorists have put the plans into action.

With that in mind, just how does your plan work to protect us? Or are you only concerned with picking up the bodies later?<<

I do see your point.

Can you see my point that a similar argument to extending warrantless searches to other areas?

[savedbygrace]

I understand that it appears to be similar, but it isn’t. It the present case, we’re talking about foreign enemies, terrorists, plotting to do a large amount of damage, death , and destruction, to Americans, while we are effectively in a state or war with these terrorists.

In the general case of warrants, they are covered well by the 4th Amendment, and have been since the adoption of the Constitution with the first 10 amendments. That protection, if you would, does not apply to foreign terrorists on foreign soil speaking with U. S. citizens. That’s why we needed the FISA legislation, to deal with those circumstances.

The two are not related very strongly, even though warrants are involved with both.

IMO.

[LurkedLongEnough]

But I just heard last night on NPR that it not only is illegal, it’s unconstitutional and immoral and impacts women and minorities the hardest.

I heard that too! Plus, C-Span had live coverage of congress critters saying the same thing!

Hmm. It's as if wiretapping might just impede NPR and congress critters from...never mind.

[ritewingwarrior]

I was going to say the same thing. So quickly people forget. Libs are in denial about facts anyways so it doesn’t matter. I supported Bush’s decision because he was after the terrorists. I don’t for Obama.

Can’t wait till Big Brother is spying on me for not recycling or swearing in my own home. Entire the age of the real Thought Police.

[Cheerio]

Can’t wait till Big Brother is spying on me for not recycling or swearing in my own home.

Oh the zer0bama civilian military force will be checking that we are running our thermostats at "74 degrees all the time" and "driving big gas guzzling SUVs". That is what he promised............I fully expect him and Piglosi/Reid congress to deliver, especially Congress. They just go livid when they think about all the oil the little people are using - what little oil resources remain needs to be saved so Piglosi can shuttle back and forth on her B-757, consuming 135 pounds of Jet-A per minute. Let's see a flight from DC to SFO and back to DC over one of those 3 day weeks the Congress works.................

[E.G.C.]

Here are my thoughts on this subject.

The coincidental timing of this ruling is something I find both very odd and very troubling.

Apparently the vibe I'm getting from these bureaucrats is it's not OK for a Republican President to spy of foreign terrorists but it's OK for a Democrat President to spy on his political opponents and adversaries.

This kind of mindset is why people like myself are hunkering down and loading up on ammunition. It seems to me the Demorats have a different idea of what a terrorist is than the Republicans.

The Dems have been well known for their notion of self serving paranoria. Anything or anyone who writes or says anything negative of them or their favored groups is considered a threat to National Security.

All I can say is we conservatives had best watch our backs and keep our powders dry. I'm not real sure what Hussien has in store for how he wants to use these wiretapping powers. If he wants to use them to spy on his political opponents and adversaries or what.

Regards......

[bert]

.......but it’s OK for a Democrat President to spy on his political opponents and adversaries........

The Rats have monitored Republican phone calls for years. John Bohner won a $700,000 judgement against Jim McDermott for monitoring a call with Newt Gingrich. The rats said a mom and pop from Florida were accidentally tuned in to the cell phone frequency. It was a blatant lie.

[rwfromkansas]

I certainly understand your concerns, but I think enough oversight etc. will help the situation.

[Smokin' Joe]

Anyone remember Echelon or Clipper?

You left out CARNIVORE...

[Cheerio]

You left out CARNIVORE...

I wonder if crappy nappy from AZ will continue the use of these intelligence tools? Doubt it, after all civil liberties comes before the safety of the homeland.

Einstein keeps an eye on agency networks. DHS officials named the program Einstein because they think their monitoring program is smart. Since 2004, Einstein has monitored participating agencies' network gateways for traffic patterns that indicate the presence of computer worms or other unwanted traffic. By collecting traffic information summaries at agency gateways, Einstein gives US-CERT analysts and participating agencies a big-picture view of bad activity on federal networks.

Department of Homeland Security officials about their plans to expand an existing "intrusion detection" system known as Einstein [February 28, 2008 11:38 AM PST ]



There is MUCH the public does not know and will never know unless some "read-in" individual feels it is his "patriotic duty" to run to the NY Slimes who will then inform all 300 million of us what SECRETS the US is keeping from us. After all we have a need to know what the big evil government is doing that keeps us safe, all the while screaming the Constitution is being shredded while we are calling our elderly terrorist uncle Somalia. /sarc

Would it violate any law for the NYT to publish the day's ICBM and SLBM nuke launch codes on thier front page? Seems unlikely the talk one hears these days.

RIP America.